Buongiorno, notte (2003)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Marco Bellocchio

Writers:

Anna Laura Braghetti (novel) and
Paola Tavella (novel) ...

Release Date:

5 September 2003 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, president of the most important political party in Italy at the time, Democrazia Cristiana, as seen from the perspective of one of his assailants -- a conflicted young woman in the ranks of the Red Brigade.

Plot Keywords:

Pope | Italy | Brigate Rosse | Kidnapping | Communism

Awards:

6 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Maya Sansa	...	Chiara
Luigi Lo Cascio	...	Mariano
Roberto Herlitzka	...	Aldo Moro
Paolo Briguglia	...	Enzo
Pier Giorgio Bellocchio	...	Ernesto
Giovanni Calcagno	...	Primo
Giulio Bosetti	...	Paolo VI (as Giulio Stefano Bosetti)
Gianni Schicchi		(as Gianni Schicchi Gabrieli)
Carlo Castelli
Bruno Cariello	...	Segretario del Papa
Alberto Cracco	...	Medium
Emanuela Barilozzi	...	Annalisa
Roberta Spagnuolo	...	Sandra
Giovanni Cappelli	...	Un impiegato
Antonio De Matteo	...	Fratello Chiara

Also Known As:

Good Morning, Night (International: English title)

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Spain:13 | Italy:T | Australia:M | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15

Company:

Filmalbatros

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Near the end, when Aldo Moro walks away in the deserted street, you can see a multicolored Peace flag in the background. Those flags would decorate Italian streets only in 2003, to oppose the invasion of Iraq.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Stessa rabbia, stessa primavera (2003)

Soundtrack:

Marcia trionfale

largely speculative true life story

On March 16, 1978, Aldo Moro, the Prime Minister of Italy, was kidnapped by a group of Communist revolutionaries known as the Red Brigade and held in captivity for 55 days. Through letters and photos sent by the kidnappers, the authorities learned that Moro had been given a "trial" by the Red Brigade and sentenced to death for his crimes against the proletariat of Italy - and, indeed, on May 9th of that year, his body was found, riddled with ten rounds of bullets, in the trunk of an abandoned car.

In "Good Morning, Night," writer/director Marco Bellochio takes the events and drains them of much of their sociopolitical significance, choosing instead to focus on the human drama at the story's core. Bellochio looks at the ambivalent feelings and conflicted motives underlying the kidnappers' actions, particularly in the case of an attractive young woman named Chiara (confidently played by Maya Sansa), who comes to question her commitment to "the cause" as the reality of what they are planning to do begins to sink in. It is largely through her eyes that we come to view the events and to see Moro less as an impersonal force to be manipulated for political purposes and more as a simple human being with all the fears, insecurities and desperate desire for life common to us all. Indeed, the political aspects stay largely in the background, relegated mainly to clips of stock footage showing us the principal players of the time dealing with the crisis.

With its dreamy visions, fantasy sequences, and tendency towards wild speculation, the film may frustrate those who would have preferred a more historically accurate, documentary approach to the topic. But Bellochio, as an artist, is less concerned with the "facts" of the case than with exploring the dilemma of the revolutionary's mindset. And to that end, he has done an exemplary job in "Good Morning, Night."